Paper Engine, The

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Steve Says; Not for the feint of hand, Aaron’s book will give you an arsenal of bad-ass moves and routines. Although it may seem daunting to the beginner, all serious card magicians will read and study this book.

The engine this book discusses has fifty-two parts. Its gears and pistons are spades and clubs. It is lubricated with hearts and diamonds. It is fueled by skilled fingers and deft imagination. And when it is started it carries its passengers to fantastic lands. It has had countless operators during the six centuries of its existence. This book navigates the innovations and fine tunings of one of its newest exponents, AARON FISHER.

LARRY JENNINGS remarked that Aaron Fisher was the most promising young card magician he had seen in the past twenty years. JOHN THOMPSON says, “The material in this book is top notch, and I guarantee it will enhance the repertoire of any serious student of card magic immensely.” Praise for Aaron Fisher’s work has spread through the inner circles of card magic for several years, resulting in a growing demand for information on the innovative techniques and card magic devised by Fisher; magic with which he has been impressing and amazing audiences of all calibers.

THE PAPER ENGINE begins with a thorough explanation of Aaron Fisher’s handling of the half pass, a handling unlike any other in that there are no overt turns, sweeps, or squaring of the cards used to hide the sleight. Fisher’s gravity half pass is done in the small motion of raising the deck from dealing position to the fingertips. There is no other perceptible action—yet the sleight is invisible from all sides. The details of this one move have been wondered about and coveted for years.

Equally innovative are Fisher’s approaches to the bluff pass, diminishing lift sequence, multiple shift, switches, and controls. And last but not least is his one-handed method for causing a card to pop face up suddenly from the center of a facedown pack.

THE PAPER ENGINE, though, is much more than a collection of technical innovation. Supporting the sleights are nineteen excellent and powerful tricks that rely on them. These are not constructions cobbled together to illustrate how the sleights might be applied. The tricks are all audience-tried-and-tested pieces of magical entertainment, drawn from Aaron Fisher’s professional repertoire. And all sleights and tricks are supplemented with observations on presentation, practicality, psychology, and theatrical theory, expressed with a clarity and candor that will surprise readers.

THE PAPER ENGINE is Aaron Fisher’s first book, and for it he has chosen only what he considers his top card material, to which he has added two exceptional tricks by Gordon Bean that use his techniques. Aaron and his co-author John Lovick have striven to provide a text that teaches clearly and succinctly on many levels. They are aided in this by Damon Webster who supplies 160 state- of-the-art photos. The result is a work that, rather than spinning its wheels in well-worn ruts, drives the craft of card magic forward into the future.

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